Hook



March 31, 1925. 1,531,746

v r L. FORT HOOK may 22. 1925 4 INVENTOR. 100/5 F0/77' BY j i I A TTORNE Y5 Patented Mar. 31, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE,

LOUIS FORT, O'F JERSEY CITY, NEW

/ HOOK.

To (1/! F7107,- it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, LOUIS Fon'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and use-.

W the expeditious reception and release of the loose and depending ends of ropes, cables or the like, which are employed to raise and lower objects, such as awnings, curtains, are or other electric street lamps, etc. Especially in the case of electric street lamps which are suspended from the end of an outstanding arm and are frequently lowered for renewal or cleaning purposes, it is essential that the free end of the rope be easily accessible and readily releasable, and at the same time that the retaining device hold the end of the rope against any possibility of accidental escape. It is the general practice to locate a hook for this purpose just high enough on the lamp post to be out of reach for the purpose of unauthorized tampering, and for the rope which suspends the lamp to run over pulleys and have its free end extend through the hook, a ring or the like on the end of the rope bearing on the underside of the hook and sustaining the lamp. The workman, usually with a hook on the end of a pole or rope, catches the ring and releases the rope from the re- 35 taining hook on the post, allowing the lamp to drop down. After he has attended to the lamp he again pulls it up and catches the rope through the hook with the ring below it.

P?) lVhile many hooks for this purpose have been and are being employed, I have not seen any which would not occasionally, under the influence of the wind or from other accidental. cause, allow the rope to escape and many serious accidents have resulted therefrom.

My invention aims to produce a hook for this purpose which will not only be abso-.

lutely safe but which will receive and re- I) lease the rope with the utmost facility when directed in the proper manner. Other objects are simplicity and inexpensiveness of construction. Still other objects and advantages of my invention will appear from the following description.

My improved device has two oppositely Application filed May 22, 1923. Serial No. 640,718.

opening hooks side by side on a common attaching plate, the eyes being in line to receive the rope and the ends converging to partially close the openings while the upper end. is then continued straight out to form a guiding finger to facilitate the weaving or threading of the rope into the hooks. The two hooks are sulliciently close together so that they cooperate and prevent the rope from escaping in the wind.

I shall now describe the illustrated emin either direction as it sways bodiment of my invention and shall thereafter point out my invention in claims.

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a portion ofa lamp post or other support with a hook embodying my invention appearing in'elevation thereon and a portion of a rope secured in the hook;

Fig. 2 is a plan or end view of the hook and a fragmentary section of the post on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 3 is a perspective ofthe hook.

As shown the hook is all one integral member, preferably cast of suitable metal. The base plate 1 has a screw hole drilled in each end, or, in lieu thereof, it may have a single integral screw, and in Figures 1 and 2 is shown attached to a post 2 which may be a lamp post. The two oppositely disposed hooks 3 and 4 on the outer' face of the plate 1 have their eyes aligned. While the eyes are large enough to allow a certain treedom to the rope, the hook openings are somewhat constricted although large enough to allow the rope to enter freely when properly guided. For this purpose'the two ends are'shown as converging in a circular direction for a substantial distance beyond the diameter normal to the plane of the base. From the opening the outer end of each hook is shown as extended out for some distance, thereby forming a guiding finger to catch and direct the rope within the hook.

A rope fi is shown in. Figure 1 extending.

through the hooks andv provided with a ring (5 on its end which is pulled by the lamp or other weight partially through the hook 41 and against the hook 3, the two hooks thus co-operatively serving as a stop for the r ng.

It is manifest that, due to the weight of the lamp or other device, the rope is held taut and that the hooks cooperate to prevent the rope from escaping laterally in either direction, The workman, however, has only the ring (5 and pull down'slightly to grasp to the position on the rope, substantially shown in dot and dash in Figure 1, and

two hooks and release it fr'omhook 3. To-

reengage the rope in the retaining device he has only to perform the reverse operation. He first catches the rope under the end of the guiding finger of hook and slips it into that hook, andthen twists the rope over to the other side of hook land catches it under that guiding linger and so into that hook. Practice has shown that the hooking and unhooking operations can be. very quickly performed.

It is obvious that various modifications may be made in the construction shown in the drawings and above particularly described within the principle and scope of my invention.

I claim:

l. A retaining device for ropes or the like comprising a base member designed for attachment to a support and having two reverse-1y disposed hook members projecting from the same face thereof with the axis of their eyes aligned and withthe planes of the eyes generally normal to their aligned axes and spaced along the length thereof.

2. 'A retaining device as described in claim 1 in which the ends of each hook member converge to form a relatively constricted opening and the outer end is extended substantially to form a guiding element.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my signature.

LOUIS FORT. 

